Vadim Puyandaev

Painter, Featured Fall 2023

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“I want the viewer to hear the music of color because I believe color is the essence of painting. Working in traditional genres such as landscape, still life, and figurative painting where the format is already set, I have an opportunity to create expressive non-narrative canvases that, via composition, energy, and, especially, color, evoke emotional responses. My work often contrasts stillness with motion, solid objects with flat backgrounds, and painting in different shades of a chosen hue, resulting in qualities of dynamism and beauty. From a childlike disregard and a willingness to follow blindly the movement of my hand across the canvas, I allow form to materialize naturally without provoking it. Fine lines—scratches layered over contrasting chunky brushstrokes, daubs of light—unearth figures, become suggestions of life in the dappled world of the painting. In some of my paintings, objects are partially obscured because I want to leave it to the viewer’s imagination to create worlds or stories within the painting. Viewing my art is not a passive activity; it is a dynamic act of joy-making. Like a moving musical piece, my art is abstracted, ordered, and emotionally charged.”

- Vadim Puyandaev